Chapter 6

"Let's stick close, we have no idea what we're up against," Lloyd said, everyone huddling closely together. Kai's fist was lit on fire, a soft glow emitting from it.

The tunnel they were in looked polished, as it had the kingdom's signature marble floors and walls. Kai and Lloyd had to crouch down slightly, as the tunnel was quite small. Harumi stuck close to Nya, who glanced back at her, Nya's tense look turning into a quick smile. She must've noticed Harumi's uncertain glances around the tunnel, because she then offered her hand to Harumi. Harumi looked down at the hand, smiled quickly at Nya and grabbed the hand as they continued deeper into the tunnel.

"Woah..." Kai gasped as they reached the end of the tunnel.

He and Lloyd straightened as they entered a mining cave. The walls around them were no longer covered with marble, instead they were rough, the floor turned into a dirt ground and the roof above them lifted higher.

"This must be an entrance to the old mines," Lloyd said as he looked around.

"Why do you think they were shut down?" Nya wondered.

"Perhaps a fatal accident? They could have mined too deep into the mountain and accidentally caused a cave-in?" Zane proposed.

"Could be, the king seemed really hurt about whatever happened," Lloyd commented.

It felt like the tunnel continued on endlessly, Harumi kept glancing back the way they came, but she couldn't even see the polished tunnel anymore. She felt the air around her get heavier, the cold seemed to radiate off of the stone walls. There were some weird glowing slugs climbing on the walls or crawling on the floor that made Harumi's skin crawl.

They had been quiet for the past 10 minutes, only their steps on the ground echoed in the cave. Somewhere up ahead they heard slight bubbling, which sent a shiver down Harumi's back; lava. But then, a whole new sound was added.

Steps.

Rapid footsteps.

Kai stopped, as did everyone else, Harumi freezing at the sound.

"Quickly, against the wall!" Kai whispered, and they all did so.

Harumi pressed against the stone wall, her hand still linked with Nya's. Kai put out the fire in his hand, the pitch black consuming them.

They were all silent, just listening to the faraway echoes of rapid steps. They seemed to come closer, Harumi's grip around Nya's hand tightened. Harumi stared ahead, trying to think how fast they could run out of here.

Then something flickered to her right. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw light. All of them quietly turned their heads to the right, seeing that there was an intersection just 200 meters away from them. And the light came from the right side of the intersection.

Someone was coming.

Harumi's heart rate picked up, and her breathing became shallow. Her muscles tensed up as adrenaline trickled into her veins.

The light came closer and closer, when suddenly, the figure turned a corner.

Harumi's tight grip around Nya's hand softened for a moment, when she realized who was coming towards them, but then a spike of adrenaline rushed into her brain as her brain wracked for an answer.

"Stop right there!" Kai yelled as he lit his fist on fire again and jumped in front of the princess.

She yelled loudly, the torch in her hand falling onto the ground. Her white kimono wasn't as white anymore, the hem brown with dirt and mud, her bun had come loose and her perfect porcelain face was covered in dirt.

"Why would you do that!" She screamed, as she realized who was there with her.

The rest of the ninja left the wall as well, and grouped behind Kai. Harumi glared at the princess, wondering what on earth was going on.

"Why are you here? Do you know where Cole is?" Lloyd quickly asked, his tone aggressive.

"I'm sorry! I know we should've come get you immediately, but you didn't believe him!" She started with a panicked breath. "But I listened to your conversation about the purple creature and well... I used to have an imaginary friend like that and I just thought that... that I could get some answers with Cole... So we came here, into the mines and searched for Mr. Sparkles, but we ended up finding something much more horrible!" She rambled quickly. "There's an underground mine full of these little creatures and they're all chained up, and they're forced to dig by these evil skeletons with whips, and Cole stayed to rescue them, and he told me to come back to get help!" the princess panted heavily, her face full of worry and panic.

"W-what!?" Jay scoffed out.

"We need to go right now, Cole could be in danger!" Nya yelled.

"Can you show us the way, princess?" Zane asked.

"Yes, yes of course! Follow me!" She said, then turned and they all ran the way she had come from.

They turned right at the intersection and ran along the tunnel, which thankfully wasn't that long. There was a train track going through the tunnel, and they ran alongside it. Harumi could see light ahead of them, and when they exited the tunnel, her face dropped.

They ran up to a ledge, a huge cave opening up in front of them. The roof must've been at least two kilometers high, and the cave dipped below them at least another two kilometers. There was a lake of lava at the left edge of the cave, then a stone platform. There was a huge structure in the middle of the cave, a large stone pillar rising from the lava and all the way up into the roof. There was a giant skull in the middle of the structure, a lava waterfall coming out of its mouth. A bridge led up into the lava waterfall. The structure was full of wooden pillars, holding up small prison cells that were empty.

At the right side of the cave, began the stone platform. There were tens if not hundreds of creatures walking around with chains around their ankles. Some were mining, some were carrying huge pieces of stones into carts, and a rhinoceros-looking creature pulled the carts along a stone bridge that led to an opening into the middle structure. There were these green crystals everywhere, that emitted a green light and black skeletons, walking around with staffs in their hands. On the right side of the platform, there were more openings in the wall that probably led deeper into the mountain.

"What the actual hell..." Jay gasped as they all took in what opened up in front of them.

"That's... That's vengestone!" Zane pointed out.

Harumi gasped as she realized that the creatures were indeed mining a black stone with golden veins. Harumi had never seen vengestone, but now could never forget what it looked like.

"What do we do now, where's Cole?" Harumi asked, looking back at Lloyd.

He was quiet for a moment, looking around the cave with his mouth agape, when he suddenly gasped: "There he is! Over there!"

Harumi quickly turned her head, trying to follow Lloyd's finger, but couldn't find where he pointed.

"By the biggest pile of Vengestone, there," Lloyd placed his hand on Harumi's shoulder, and stepped closer, pointing out where Cole stood.

A blush spread across Harumi's cheeks, not purely out of Lloyd's touch. "Ah, there he is!" she sighed, when she finally noticed him. But she felt incredibly embarrassed. Lloyd almost had to hold her hand for her to notice something...

"We need to get his attention somehow..." Jay wondered.

"Without getting the attention of those creeps..." Kai shuddered.

"I advise you to stay here, princess. It is for your own safety," Zane explained to Vania.

"Actually, you could leave the mines all together. Go alert your father, there is definitely something shady going on here associated with Vengestone," Lloyd advised, Harumi noticing his tone still quite blunt. Harumi tried to study his expression, a determined look on his face. But his tone didn't quite match that.

The princess seemed to be slightly taken aback by this as well. "Oh yeah, you're right," she said, quickly shaking the look off her face. "I'll go at once!" she said with a determined nod, and ran back the way they had come.

"Now, what might be Cole's plan..." Lloyd thought out loud.

"Probably just go in there swinging," Jay commented.

"That might've been his approach before, but I'm sure he's grown-" A sudden noise interrupted Lloyd's analysis.

Harumi quickly turned her head to see that Cole had indeed come out of his hiding spot and was now yelling at the skeletons.

"I take everything I said back..." Lloyd sighed.

The skeletons started approaching Cole, as he had apparently finished whatever it was that he wanted to say. The creatures around seemed to just back up fearfully.

"Let's get in there and help him!" Kai yelled, quickly jumping down from the ledge they were on, to a lower one.

Lloyd looked at Harumi, who looked up at him. "Follow me," he said, as he also jumped down to the lower level.

Harumi let out a sharp breath, gathering the adrenaline in her veins. She carefully dropped to the lower level, then followed Lloyd as he climbed down the side of the wall, down to the level where the stone platform was. Harumi grabbed the stones brick by brick, and lowered herself to the platform. That's when Harumi saw huge cages made of wood at the furthest corner on the platform.

Suddenly, Harumi felt woozy. She felt lightheaded, her eyesight suddenly blurring. Her ears started ringing lightly. She tried to shake her head and shut her eyes, hoping the weird feeling would go away. Was it because of the adrenaline? Was she having a heart attack?

"Hey, are you okay?" she heard Lloyd's whisper. She opened her eyes and looked up at Lloyd.

She had to do this. Prove herself.

"Yeah, yeah I am. Let's go," she said confidently, and nodded towards Cole.

Lloyd gave her a determined nod and then pulled out his katana. Harumi had two Kunai knives on her belt, she grabbed them as well. Really they were more for her to just grab onto something, as she felt incredibly underqualified. She didn't feel like she had trained enough to be here already, but there was no backing down now. She had to prove herself.

Lloyd and Harumi ran towards the huddle of skeletons, Lloyd slicing one in half with his katana. The skeleton collapsed onto the ground, laying there emotionless. Cole punched through two skeletons, now noticing that the rest of his team had arrived.

"Need a hand?" Harumi smiled at him. "How'd you get down here!?" He gasped, the rest of the team gathering around them as well.

"We'll explain later, now, let's fight!" Lloyd said, turning around, slicing another skeleton in half.

Harumi turned around, a skeleton running toward her, a staff in hand. Harumi quickly planted her feet, and waited for the skeleton to be as close as possible, then ducked down, the skeleton tripping over her and falling to the ground. It shattered on impact, its green eyes dimming out as it laid there emotionless.

Harumi didn't have time to be impressed by herself, when one staff flew right by her face. Harumi quickly turned, seeing that a skeleton had thrown its staff right by Harumi. Harumi quickly placed her knives back on her belt and grabbed the staff off the ground. She ran toward it, swinging the staff by the skeleton's legs and tripping it down. It fell to its back and shattered as well, its eyes dimming out.

A quick smile spread on Harumi's face as she was impressed with herself. She turned around to see that everyone else had taken out the rest of the skeletons.

"These guys go down so easily!" Kai commented, as everyone started putting their weapons away.

"Let's go, we need to save these guys!" Cole said, as they started running towards the creatures.

But then, a burst was heard behind them. Harumi turned around quickly, seeing that green flames had bursted out of the skull that was decorating the middle structure. Lava stopped pouring out of the skull's mouth, as a bridge extended out from it.

"What the-" "What is that!?" A faint voice said behind them.

Harumi turned around quickly, again, this time finding- "VANIA!?" Cole gasped.

The dirty princess stood right behind them, one skeleton staff in hand. Her face was full of fear and worry.

"What on earth are you doing here!?" Harumi breathed out.

"I told you to go get help!" Lloyd argued.

"I know, but then I thought 'oh no what if they need help right now', so I turned back and then I well... I saw that..." she quickly explained.

"You have got to be-" "Who dares to disturb the Skull Sorcerer!" A booming voice said behind them, interrupting Nya's scoff.

Harumi turned, again, this time seeing a figure flying out of the skull's mouth. They were flying in the air, their wings like bats. They wore a black kimono, with neon green details. Their face concealed with a skull mask with glowing green eyes, a black straw hat on their head. Next to them flew a neon green skull...

A shiver was sent down Harumi's back.

As if she had... as if she had seen that skull once before...

It was like something twisted inside her, an uncomfortable feeling settling into her bones. Her eyes started blurring again, her ears ringing.

The figure flew towards them, as if eyeing the destruction they had done.

"There's six- seven of us and only one of you!" Kai yelled at the flying sorcerer.

"We need to get you out of here princess, right now!" Harumi heard Cole's voice whisper behind her.

"Is that so?" the figure spoke, the words coming out in a breathy way, their voice raspy and low. He raised his hand, the skull rising with it. Its eyes glowed a green flame as it yelled in a raspy voice "Rise!"

Harumi's heart skipped a beat as the defeated skeletons around them reattached themselves, building themselves back up and rising to their feet. Their eyes started glowing green again, grabbing their staffs back into their hands.

"What the fuuuckk..." Jay drawled out, as they all drew out their weapons again.

The skeletons surrounded them, as the sorcerer laughed. "You will never see the sun again!" He chuckled in his low voice. "And you, little princess, are coming with me!"

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The Skull Sorcerer's skeletons had surrounded them, and even though they tried to fight against them, an endless army of regenerating skeletons was too much. The sorcerer had grabbed Vania and took her to his lair in the middle structure, leaving the rest of them to be shackled. Chains were wrapped around their feet and pickaxes were placed in their hands.

They had begun mining, everyone trying to gain their strength back after the fight. Lloyd was beating himself up over the fact that he had made yet another wrong choice. If he would've just believed Cole, he wouldn't have left alone with the princess and they wouldn't have gotten captured. On top of that, he also would've never had to make Harumi climb out of that stupid window.

Lloyd glanced at Harumi, who was mining next to him. She had a blank expression, all her focus on the stone in front of her. The sight was like another stab to Lloyd's conscience.

"Hey," Lloyd started, his voice low. Harumi lifted her head. "We're gonna get out of here, don't worry. We've been in worse situations, this is nothing we can't handle," he said with a small smile on his face.

"I know," she said with a small smile, that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Doesn't make me any less scared," she added with a sigh.

"No one's getting hurt, I promise. We're all going to make it out of here," Lloyd tried to comfort Harumi.

"I want to believe that but..." the smile dropped from her lips. "That sorcerer just seemed so... I dunno, ruthless..." she said, fear coating her expression.

"Hey, listen," Lloyd dropped his pickaxe, placing his hands on Harumi's shoulders. "I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, or anyone else. That sorcerer? He's nothing compared to... what we faced last time. We'll get out of here in one piece, like we always have," he explained, dropping his hands off Harumi's shoulders.

She was quiet for a moment. She looked at Lloyd, those beautiful brown eyes full of worry. Then she nodded and let out a sigh: "Okay."

"We need to find a way out of here, fast!" Cole said as he swung his pickaxe and mined yet another piece of Vengestone. Lloyd turned his attention to him.

"I'm feeling woozier by the second, we've never been surrounded with this much Vengestone," Nya added, throwing her gathered Vengestone pieces to a cart, which was led by one of those stone rhinos.

"You're right, we need to come up with a plan," Lloyd looked at the rest of the team. "Does anyone have any ideas?" he asked with a heavy sigh.

"We need to talk to those guys, they've probably been here way longer than us," Cole nodded his head toward the other creatures working in the mines.

Lloyd eyed them. There were two kinds of creatures. Smaller, purple skinned creatures that looked like gremlins and bigger and sturdier, green skinned creatures that looked like orcs.

Both of the groups were doing the same as them, mining vengestone in shackles. But Lloyd noticed that the two groups glared at each other often, raising their fists at the sight of one another.

"That's a good idea, we need to learn more about that sorcerer and how long this has been going on. He's probably the Vengestone seller to our Vengestone buyer..." Lloyd pondered.

"I can go try mine over there, and talk to the-" A loud bell rang, which interrupted Cole.

Lloyd quickly looked in the direction of the sound. Behind them a skeleton was ringing a bell, standing next to a line of wooden tables, which were filled with large cauldrons and a stack of plates. All the creatures around them dropped their pickaxes and started walking toward the table.

"It must be breakfast time!" Jay chirped excitedly, dropping his pickaxe and excitedly walking toward the tables.

Lloyd looked around at his team, then felt his own stomach rumble at the thought of food. "Let's go eat," he nodded his head and dropped his pickaxe as well.

They approached the table, Jay grabbing his plate first. Lloyd followed closely as Jay approached the skeleton, who scooped something out of the big cauldron and onto his plate.

All of Lloyd's appetite was lost as he saw what landed on Jay's plate. It looked like booger soup, green slime with worms and rocks in it.

Jay's excitement about food was quickly turned into a gag, as he tried to hold himself together. He glared at the meal he had been handed, but as the skeleton growled at him, he moved along.

Lloyd got his own portion of booger soup and followed the rest of his team, who had walked over to where all the other creatures sat. Lloyd sat next to Cole, who was eyeing the green creature next to him curiously.

He cleared his throat, the creature turning up to look at him. "Hey, um... My name's Cole, what's your name?" he said.

"Murt," the creature said in a low voice, patting his chest. "You try save us?" he asked, lifting his eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah we tried to. And we'll try again! We just need a little help from you. How long have you been down here, Murt?" Cole asked.

"Long time, like you," Murt answered with a smile, a tooth poking out of his mouth.

"W-what?" Cole chuckled. "No, we just got here. We fought the skeletons just an hour ago, remember?"

"Yes, you lost," he nodded, turning his attention back to his booger soup.

Lloyd sighed at the interaction, turning his attention down to his food. Jay tried to scoop some of it into his mouth, but gagged before it even reached his tongue.

"Hey, um Murt?" Kai prompted, the creature now turning to look up at him. "My name's Kai, and I was just wondering if... Are there any other... creatures like you who are a little, um... smarter than you?" he asked with a careful tone, but Lloyd still cringed at the choice of words.

"Murt smartest. Also Manko, and Mudd, and Mood, and Meeha and Mid-" "Do all of your names start with the letter M?" Zane wondered, cutting the orc off.

"Mm," he hummed. "Like you, Mole," he smiled, looking at Cole.

"W-what? No, no, my name's Cole," Cole quickly corrected.

"Like I said, Mole," Murt smiled.

"No, my name starts with a C, like um... like cold! Can you say Cold?"

"Cold?" Murt repeated with a confused look.

"Yes, exactly! My name's just like that, Cole," Cole repeated slowly.

"Mole," Murt repeated just as slowly, a wide smile spreading to his lips.

"This can't be happening..." Nya sighed, while rubbing her temples.

"You shouldn't listen to those low-wits!" A high pitched voice said on the other side of the group.

Lloyd turned his head to find a purple creature standing next to them, a sour expression on his face.

"Not low-wit! Munce big-wit, Geckle low-wit!" Murt argued back, his tone quickly changing into an aggressive one.

"It's high-wit, you blade stealer!" the purple creature hissed.

"Me? You blade stealer!" Murt replied, growling.

"Hey, hey, let's calm down!" Lloyd quickly stood up, his hands extending to his sides to calm down the two opposing sides. He turned towards the purple creature. "My name's Lloyd, what about you?"

"Gliff. We saw what you tried. Very honorable, but stupid. There is no defeating those skeletons, especially if the sorcerer is around," he answered.

"Well, if we were to work together as a team, maybe we could defeat them and escape," Lloyd proposed.

Gliff scoffed: "Us Geckles, working together with the Munce? Never going to happen!"

"Munce don't want to work with dumb Geckle!" Murt growled on the other side.

"Why not? We'd all be saved if you'd work together!" Cole whined.

"Munce honorable, unlike the stealing Geckle!" Murt commented.

"Do you think it's honorable to be a thief, you blade stealer!" Gliff yelled back.

"You blade stealer!" Murt yelled, as he stood up and walked toward Gliff.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Lloyd stood between them again, Murt walking up to his hand. "Stop yelling at each other!" he commanded.

"What are you referring to when you call each other 'blade stealer'?" Zane asked calmly.

"The Munce!""The Geckles!" Murt and Gliff yelled on top of each other, glaring at the other.

"What even are these blades you talk about?" Nya asked. "Please, we're trying to figure out a way to escape, could you just tell us why your tribes don't get along?" she continued, her tone pleading.

Both of them scoffed, but then both of them took a step back and sat down.

Gliff sighed. "Oh, very well. I will tell you the story of the Two Blades," he started, first glaring at Murt. "Once upon a time there were Two Blades, one was the Ivory Blade of Deliverance, the other the Shadow Blade of Deliverance. These two blades belonged to a mighty warrior named Gilly-" "Milly." Murt corrected, interrupting Gliff's story.

"Not 'Milly', you fool! It's Gilly!" Gliff argued back.

Cole groaned loudly. "Just skip the name, it doesn't matter! Just finish the story, please," he whined.

Gliff cleared his throat. "The warrior came to our mountain many, many years ago. In those days, Geckles and Munce lived in fear, for there was a terrible dragon in the heart of the mountain!" he continued with a dramatic tone.

"Mief-Bringer!" Murt commented.

"No, you imbecile! Its name was Grief-Bringer!" Gliff yelled.

"No, Mief-Bringer!"

"This is impossible..." Lloyd sighed.

"Let me finish the story!" Gliff hissed. Murt grunted, but then turned to look at the ninja, Gliff doing the same. "For many days and nights, Gilly battled Grief-Bringer. In the end, she defeated the beast! The Geckles and Munce were safe again. Gilly needed to return back to the surface, but before she went she gave us a parting gift! She gave the Ivory Blade to the noble geckles, and the Shadow blade to the stinking traitorous Munce. She told us that the blades would help us, if ever another evil should return to our mountain!"

"That's very interesting and all, but why do you hate each other?" Jay asked.

"Because the Munce snuck into our cave and stole our blade, because the greedy greenies wanted both!" Gliff hissed, as he turned back to face Murt.

"Geckle stole Blade! Not Munce!" Murt growled as the two faced each other.

Before the two could continue their bicker, a skeleton snapped a whip in front of them. The skeleton yelled at them, Lloyd quickly lifting his hands in the air. "We're done eating, right guys? Let's get back to work," Lloyd said, eyeing Gliff and Murt.

Both of them scoffed, Gliff rolling his eyes. Then they walked to opposite directions, grabbing their pickaxes and getting back to work.

"They both think the other stole the blade..." Lloyd whispered under his breath, as they walked back to their mining spot.

"I bet neither of them did, but a third party took both of them," Harumi said. Her voice didn't tremble, and as Lloyd turned to look at her, her eyes were wide with determination.

"Three guesses who," Lloyd looked up at the decorative skull-lava-waterfall.

"There is an ancient proverb that says 'an enemy divided is more easily conquered'." Zane chimed into the conversation.

"The Munce and Geckles are too busy fighting each other, they can't fight against the Skull Sorcerer," Lloyd recapped, more for himself. "We need a truce between them, just until we can escape. Maybe then we could try to rally their troops and defeat the evil sorcerer," the plan finally started to come together in his mind.

"Maybe Mole should talk to them, the green guy clearly liked him," Kai smirked.

Cole rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Or maybe we should spread a message that we have a way to get their blades back. You'd think that's enough motivation for them to keep it together," he proposed.

"Sounds like a plan," Lloyd nodded.